Mortality in Correctional Institutions (MCI) (formerly, the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP)), is an annual data collection conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The MCI collection began in 2000 under the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-297). It is the only national statistical collection that obtains detailed information about deaths in adult correctional facilities. MCI collects data on persons dying in state prisons, local jails and in the process of arrest. Each collection is a separate subcollection, but each is under the umbrella of the MCI collection. This deals with the prison subcollection, which has a prison death file. The prison portion of Mortality in Correctional Institutions began in 2001 after the passage of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 in October of 2000. The prison component of MCI collects data on inmate deaths occurring in the 50 state departments of corrections while inmates are in the physical custody of prison officials.

In 2019, *** jail inmates in the United States died in Californian jails. A further *** local jail inmates died in Florida jails in that same year. Texas, Pennsylvania, and Georgia rounded out the top five states for jail inmate deaths.

The Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP) is an annual data collection conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The DCRP began in 2000 under the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-297). It is the only national statistical collection that obtains detailed information about deaths in adult correctional facilities. The DCRP collects data on persons dying in state prisons, local jails and in the process of arrest. Each collection is a separate subcollection, but each is under the umbrella of the DCRP collection. The DCRP collects inmate death records from each of the nation's 50 state prison systems and approximately 2,800 local jail jurisdictions. In addition, this program collects records of all deaths occurring during the process of arrest. Data are collected directly from state and local law enforcement agencies. Death records include information on decedent personal characteristics (age, race or Hispanic origin, and sex), decedent criminal background (legal status, offense type, and time served), and the death itself (date, time, location, and cause of death, as well as information on the autopsy and medical treatment provided for any illness or disease). This data collection represents a single year of DCRP Jails data. The variable names and coding, while similar to other years, have not been standardized across years. The concatenated multi-year versions of the DCRP Jails population data have been edited to correct outliers and other data anomalies. Researchers are encouraged to use the concatenated multi-year data for final jail population data.

In 2019, 78.9 percent of state and federal prison inmate fatalities in the United States were caused by illness. In that year, cancer was the leading cause of death, accounting for 28.1 percent of deaths.

Mortality in Correctional Institutions (MCI)(formerly, the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP)) is an annual data collection conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The MCI began in 2000 under the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-297). It is the only national statistical collection that obtains detailed information about deaths in adult correctional facilities. The MCI collects data on persons dying in state prisons, local jails and in the process of arrest. Each collection is a separate subcollection, but each is under the umbrella of the MCI collection. This collection deals with the jail subcollection, which includes a jail populations file. The jail portion of Mortality in Correctional Institutions began in 2000 after the passage of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 in October of 2000. The original law lapsed at year-end 2006, but BJS continued to collect the data on a voluntary basis until the reauthorization of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act in December of 2014. The jail component of the MCI collects data on the death of any inmate in his/her custody, even if the inmate was being held for another jurisdiction, such as the state department of corrections, another state or county, or the federal government. Jail deaths include the death of any inmate sent outside the jail facility for medical, mental health or substance abuse treatment services, or for work-release programs. Deaths that occur while an inmate is in transit to or from the jail facility are included. Deaths of jail inmates on temporary furloughs or who escaped from the jail facility are excluded. This longitudinal dataset includes year-end collections of population and admissions data from all jail jurisdictions nationwide annually, from 2000 to 2019. The file does not include death data. Interested users should see Mortality in Correctional Institutions: Local Jails, 2000-2019 (ICPSR 38036).

The Mortality In Correctional Institutions (MCI) data collection (formerly Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP)), collects quarterly inmate death records from each of the nation's 50 state prison systems, 50 state juvenile correctional authorities, and 3,095 local jails. In addition, the program collects quarterly records of all deaths during the process of arrest by each of the nation's 17,784 state and local law enforcement agencies. These death records include information on the deceased's personal characteristics (age, gender and race/ethnicity), their criminal background (legal status, offense types, length of stay in custody), and details of the death itself (the date, time, location and cause of each death, as well as information on autopsies and medical treatment provided for illnesses/diseases).

Mortality in Correctional Institutions (MCI)(formerly, the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP)) is an annual data collection conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The MCI began in 2000 under the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-297). It is the only national statistical collection that obtains detailed information about deaths in adult correctional facilities. The MCI collects data on persons dying in state prisons, local jails and in the process of arrest. Each collection is a separate subcollection, but each is under the umbrella of the MCI collection. This collection deals with the jail subcollection, which includes a jail populations file. The jail portion of Mortality in Correctional Institutions began in 2000 after the passage of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 in October of 2000. The original law lapsed at year-end 2006, but BJS continued to collect the data on a voluntary basis until the reauthorization of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act in December of 2014. The jail component of the MCI collects data on the death of any inmate in his/her custody, even if the inmate was being held for another jurisdiction, such as the state department of corrections, another state or county, or the federal government. Jail deaths include the death of any inmate sent outside the jail facility for medical, mental health or substance abuse treatment services, or for work-release programs. Deaths that occur while an inmate is in transit to or from the jail facility are included. Deaths of jail inmates on temporary furloughs or who escaped from the jail facility are excluded. This longitudinal dataset includes year-end collections of population and admissions data from all jail jurisdictions nationwide annually, from 2000 to 2017. The file does not include death data. Interested users should see Mortality in Correctional Institutions: Local Jails, 2000-2017 (ICPSR 37878).

Overall, 1,200 inmates died in local jails in the United States in 2019. This is an increase from the previous year, when 1,138 inmates died in local jails in the United States.

In 2019, the mortality rate for state prisoners in the United States stood at 330 deaths per 100,000 inmates. This is an increase from the previous year, when the mortality rate stood at 347 per 100,000 inmates. All causes of death were considered.

In 2019, there were 3,853 state prisoner fatalities in the United States. This is a decrease from the previous year, when there were 4,137 state prisoner fatalities. All causes of death have been considered. A list of the countries with the largest number of prisoners is accessible here.

Between 2000 and 2019, 30.5 percent of local jail inmate deaths in the United States were suicides. This was the leading cause of death for local jail inmates over that time period. The second leading cause of death was heart disease, accounting for 23.7 percent of deaths.

In 2019, 2,144 white state prison inmates died in the United States. A further 1,174 Black or African American inmates died in that same year. In total, 3,853 United States state prison inmates died in 2019.

Suicide was the leading cause of death for local jail inmates in the United States in 2019, accounting for 355 deaths in that year. Heart disease killed a further 294 inmates in that same year, making it the second leading cause of death.

Abstract: Mortality in prisons, a basic indicator of the right to health for incarcerated persons, has never been studied extensively in Brazil. An assessment of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in prison inmates was conducted in 2016-2017 in the state of Rio de Janeiro, based on data from the Mortality Information System and Prison Administration. Mortality rates were compared between prison population and general population after standardization. The leading causes of death in inmates were infectious diseases (30%), cardiovascular diseases (22%), and external causes (12%). Infectious causes featured HIV/AIDS (43%) and TB (52%, considering all deaths with mention of TB). Only 0.7% of inmates who died had access to extramural health services. All-cause mortality rate was higher among prison inmates than in the state’s general population. Among inmates, mortality from infectious diseases was 5 times higher, from TB 15 times higher, and from endocrine diseases (especially diabetes) and cardiovascular diseases 1.5 and 1.3 times higher, respectively, while deaths from external causes were less frequent in prison inmates. The study revealed important potentially avoidable excess deaths in prisons, reflecting lack of care and exclusion of this population from the Brazilian Unified National Health System. This further highlights the need for a precise and sustainable real-time monitoring system for deaths, in addition to restructuring of the prison staff through implementation of the Brazilian National Policy for Comprehensive Healthcare for Persons Deprived of Freedom in the Prison System in order for inmates to fully access their constitutional right to health with the same quality and timeliness as the general population.

🇺🇸 United States

Basic data on the number and characteristics of deaths reported each year by approximately 3,000 local jails nationwide, and national data on the number and rate of jail deaths, by cause and over time, as well as specific data on the nation's 50 largest jail jurisdictions.The Deaths in Custody Reporting Program (DCRP) is an annual data collection conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). The DCRP began in 2000 under the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-297). It is the only national statistical collection that obtains detailed information about deaths in adult correctional facilities. The DCRP collects data on persons dying in state prisons, local jails and in the process of arrest. Each collection is a separate subcollection, but each is under the umbrella of the DCRP collection. This deals with the local jails subcollection, which has a local jail facilities death file.The jails portion of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program began in 2000 after the passage of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act of 2000 in October of 2000. The jails component of the DCRP collects data on inmate deaths occurring in local jail facilities while inmates are in the physical custody of jail facility officials.

In 2011, a historic Supreme Court decision mandated that the state of California substantially reduce its prison population to alleviate overcrowding, which was deemed so severe as to preclude the provision of adequate healthcare. To comply, California passed the Public Safety Realignment Act (Assembly Bill [AB] 109), representing the largest ever court-ordered reduction of a prison population in U.S. history. AB109 was successful in reducing the state prison population; however, although the policy was precipitated by inadequate healthcare in state prisons, no studies have examined its effects on prisoner health. As other states grapple with overcrowded prisons and look to California’s experience with this landmark policy, understanding how it may have impacted prisoner health is critical. We sought to evaluate the effects of AB109 on prison mortality and assess the extent to which policy-induced changes in the age distribution of prisoners may have contributed to these effects. To do so, we used prison mortality data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the California Deaths in Custody reporting program and prison population data from the National Corrections Reporting Program to examine changes in overall prison mortality, the age distribution of prisoners, and age-adjusted prison mortality in California relative to other states before and after the implementation of AB109. Following AB109, California prisons experienced an increase in overall mortality relative to other states that attenuated within three years. Over the same period, California experienced a greater upward shift in the age distribution of its prisoners relative to other states, suggesting that the state’s increase in overall mortality may have been driven by this change in age distribution. Indeed, when accounting for this differential change in age distribution, mortality among California prisoners exhibited a greater reduction relative to other states in the third year after implementation. As other states seek to reduce their prison populations to address overcrowding, assessments of California’s experience with AB109 should consider this potential improvement in age-adjusted mortality.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics This series of studies contains a descriptive analysis of federal and state-operated adult confinement and correctional facilities nationwide. The census included prisons, penitentiaries, and correctional facilities; boot camps; community corrections; prison farms; reception, diagnostic, and classification centers; road camps; forestry and conservation camps; youthful offender facilities (except in California); vocational training facilities; prison hospitals; and correctional drug and alcohol treatment facilities. Variables include physical security, age of facilities, functions of facilities, programs, inmate work assignments, staff employment, facilities under court order/consent decree for conditions of confinement, capital and operating expenditures, custody level of residents/inmates, one-day and average daily population counts, race/ethnicity of inmates, inmate deaths, special inmate counts, and assaults and incidents by inmates. The institution is the unit of analysis. The Census of State and Federal Adult Correctional Facilities is produced every 5 years.

In 2019, 143 inmates of state and federal prisons in the United States were killed by homicide. This is a significant increase from 2008 levels, when 40 inmates were killed in state or federal prisons in the United States.

Presents data from the National Inmate Survey (NIS), 2007, conducted in 146 State and Federal prisons between April and August 2007, with a sample of 23,398 inmates. The report and appendix tables provide a listing of State and Federal prisons ranked according to the incidence of prison rape, as required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. Facilities are listed by the prevalence and incidence of sexual victimization in each facility, as reported by inmates during a personal interview and based on activity since admission to the facility or in the 12 months prior to the interview. The report includes national-level and facility-level estimates of nonconsensual sexual acts, abusive sexual contacts, inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate victimization, and level of coercion. It also includes estimates of the standard error for selected measures of sexual victimization. Data from jail inmates collected in the National Inmate Survey will be completed in January 2008, with a report ranking facilities expected in April 2008. National Inmate Survey (NIS) is part of the BJS National Prison Rape Statistics Program to gather mandated data on the incidence of prevalence of sexual assault in correctional facilities under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79). The Act requires a 10% sample of correctional facilities to be listed by incidence of sexual assault. Data are collected directly from inmates in a private setting using Audio Computer-Assisted Self Interview (ACASI) technology with a laptop touchscreen and an audio feed to maximize inmate confidentiality and minimize literacy issues. The sample includes approximately 150 state and federal prison facilities and 300 jail facilities, and between 80,000 to 90,000 individual inmate interviews. The first year of collection is to be completed by year end 2007. For more information on this data please go to: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/svsfpri07.htm